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Greetings TCCers,

spike05

Cruising
Jan 17, 2012
12
0
I'll be passing through Japan en route from Australia to Bremen in late May, stopping over for a week of glorious cycling adventure, with lots of hills, mountain passes and stiff espressos - eh, green teas... Wish I could stay longer, alas that's for another day.

Like Kevin (Hi Kevin!) I'm from Sydney, just into my 50s and a weekend warrior.Been to Japan a few times, but have never taken a bike nor ridden while there. I'm likely headed for Shizuoka, but might stop over in Tokyo for a day or two. Would love to join you for a ride or two.

BTW, does anyone know of a good way/place for storing a bike for two weeks? The idea is to pick it up on the way back, as close to the airport as possible. Had a look at rates at Narita airport and it's not exactly cheap. Love to hear from you.

Cheers, Christian
 
Should have had a better read of previous posts before :hammer:
Thanks to all those who have already covered this topic an provided great advice.
I'll be leaving the bike at Narita airport for 2 weeks as I will only have a 4 hour lay-over on the way back. Not enough time or worth the stress of going into Narita or Chiba to pick it up from a friendly bike shop.
 
I'll be passing through Japan en route from Australia to Bremen in late May, stopping over for a week of glorious cycling adventure, with lots of hills, mountain passes and stiff espressos - eh, green teas...

You can get good coffee almost anywhere in Japan, but Shizuoka is famous for its tea.

I hope you have a good ride over here. There are many of us around the Tokyo area, not sure about Shizuoka.
 
You can get good coffee almost anywhere in Japan, but Shizuoka is famous for its tea.

I hope you have a good ride over here. There are many of us around the Tokyo area, not sure about Shizuoka.

Thanks Joewein. It's just as well that I love green tea. I also have this strange (for gaijin) affection for a hot POKKA from AM PM for breakfast...
 
You can get good coffee almost anywhere in Japan, but Shizuoka is famous for its tea.

I hope you have a good ride over here. There are many of us around the Tokyo area, not sure about Shizuoka.

I beg to differ regarding coffee. Spike, from my experience, good cafe style coffee you are used to in Sydney is not easy to find in Japan. Most places will only have brewed coffe.
As for riding in Japan, you will love it. So much better than Sydney but you have to know where to go. TCC was a good source of information. I done a route from Tokyo to Kyoto and it was beautiful. Lots of moutain passes with beautiful scenery and friendly people. It helps to be able to speak a little Japanese. I did it in 3 days heading north to the mountains than west. I highly recommend compact cranks. I did it in standard cranks and cried on some of the long mountain climbs. No climb in Sydney compares to the Japanese mountains in challange and beauty.
If you are interested in a ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, I got a route that will work.

Jon
 
I beg to differ regarding coffee. Spike, from my experience, good cafe style coffee you are used to in Sydney is not easy to find in Japan. Most places will only have brewed coffe.

I can probably count the times I've had bad coffee in Japan on the fingers of one hand, provided I exclude the canned variety sold from vending machines.

Sure, you may not be able to find espresso, latte, cappuccino, etc universally, but filter coffee served in restaurants tends to be pretty decent!

By contrast, when I first visited the UK and the US in the 1980s, bad coffee was just one of those things you had to be prepared for. A lot of my acquaintances in the UK used to serve me instant coffee when I accepted their offer of a cup of coffee after dinner. In the US people had this habit of keeping the coffee pot on a boiler plate almost indefinitely, which to me ruins the taste within minutes. Both countries have since much improved their coffee culture.
 
LOL - you guys no nothing of coffee..... Try the stuff in Dubai, Quatar or Southern Western Afican countries..... then you'll know what a real "coffee kick" is! :D
 
Spending most of my coffee drinking life in either Seattle, San Francisco or Italy, I'd have to rank the coffee in Japan as marginal, at best. It's either burnt tasting, disgusting 'thrice through grounds' tasting, yechhy water tasting, tepid, stale, or just plain 'off'. I don't consider the can coffee, coffee at all - it's just a canned beverage with 'coffee like' flavoring and enough extra chemical stimulants to induce seizures in any but the drunkest salarymen or tanked riders. Our developer team used to fondly refer to it as Liquid Crack. And we'd judge the addiction by the number of cans stacked at their desks. If they got over 20 in a day, then it was off to Betty Ford for the weekend.

LOL - you guys no nothing of coffee..... Try the stuff in Dubai, Quatar or Southern Western Afican countries..... then you'll know what a real "coffee kick" is! :D
 
The stuff served in dirty little cups on street corners in Syria rocks!
In the UK coffee means instant!:eek:
LOL - you guys no nothing of coffee..... Try the stuff in Dubai, Quatar or Southern Western Afican countries..... then you'll know what a real "coffee kick" is! :D
 
Surprisingly the coffee that McDonalds serve is quite good, not much else there is worth anything, but the coffee is good!
 
Surprisingly the coffee that McDonalds serve is quite good, not much else there is worth anything, but the coffee is good!

Agreed on McDs coffee....

One thing here that I've found always excellent is syphon coffee. Got a setup at home now, quite fun, like a chemistry set for breakfast!

You can find it in random places. Creightons in shibuya station has it.... Highly recommended! (the coffee anyway, creightons is a bit expensive.... Some cafe colorados seem to do it, even found it on the slopes at Niseko...)
 
Agreed on McDs coffee....

One thing here that I've found always excellent is syphon coffee. Got a setup at home now, quite fun, like a chemistry set for breakfast!

You can find it in random places. Creightons in shibuya station has it.... Highly recommended! (the coffee anyway, creightons is a bit expensive.... Some cafe colorados seem to do it, even found it on the slopes at Niseko...)

There's a business idea in there somewhere, methinks. There must be enough cyclists and others dying for a decent cap, mac, espresso or latte midway through or at the end of a ride. And you wouldn't need to charge ¥800 per shot.
On another note, any thoughts on dress etiquette for cyclists? I noticed that many local riders wear baggy shorts over the top of nicks or tights. Perhaps for reasons of modesty?
Down here in Oz we tend to wear nicks and jerseys and nobody cares. Coffee shops usually don't mind a bunch of sweaty cyclicst sitting at their tables.
 
There's a business idea in there somewhere, methinks. There must be enough cyclists and others dying for a decent cap, mac, espresso or latte midway through or at the end of a ride. And you wouldn't need to charge ¥800 per shot.
On another note, any thoughts on dress etiquette for cyclists? I noticed that many local riders wear baggy shorts over the top of nicks or tights. Perhaps for reasons of modesty?
Down here in Oz we tend to wear nicks and jerseys and nobody cares. Coffee shops usually don't mind a bunch of sweaty cyclicst sitting at their tables.


Who cares what other people think. Life is too short to get fussed about that.

:angel:
 
I noticed that many local riders wear baggy shorts over the top of nicks or tights. Perhaps for reasons of modesty?

More likely hip-hop fashion than anything else.

There are plenty of cyclists here who wear proper cycling shorts with nothing to cover them.
 
I don't understand that either most of the staff at Y's all just go full on spandex but we have a couple guys who have to wear basketball pants or something over their tights. I can't understand them being ashamed since public baths are all over Japan. :p
 
Erm - my family owns bike shops in the UK and trust me, the last thing you want to have to do is spend the day walking around in your kit after a ride in to work!

I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of these guys are wearing compression tights for recovery or just for the simple fact that if you are on your feet all day they make life a lot more comfortable - My wife wears hers at work, especailly when she is on night shifts at the hospital.

In regards to sitting around drinking coffee, I would rather be riding the bike than posing in budgie smugglers at the local Sta- Ba ;)
 
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